The Australian Army
The Australian commitment to the Second World War was centred upon two very different theatres of operation. Australia had declared war on Nazi Germany shortly after Britain and France on 3rd September 1939. The Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) were created to provide units and formations for service overseas, with the 6th Australian Infantry Division being the first to deploy abroad, arriving in Egypt in early 1940. They enjoyed considerable success against a numerically superior Italian enemy before the end of the year.
The North African campaign would eventually involve three Australian Infantry Divisions, serving alongside British, Indian, New Zealand and South African troops, plus numerous other national contingents. During 1941 however, concerns grew in Australia that the country may soon have to defend its own territory against attack from an increasingly aggressive Imperial Japan. Those fears were confirmed in December 1941, when the Japanese launched a massive offensive in the Pacific region. A little over two months later in February 1942 came a double blow, as the 8th Australian Infantry Division was lost whole with the surrender of Singapore and Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin.
These events lead to a major redeployment of Australian forces. Despite the continued campaign in North Africa, the AIF was gradually withdrawn from the theatre, 9th Australian Infantry Division being the last to leave at the end of 1942. The new battlegrounds for the Australians would be the chain of islands off their own northern coast, including New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Here the Australians would face the Japanese Army in terrain very different from, but in its own way equally inhospitable to, that of the western desert. Australian casualties across the three services included over 23,000 dead during the course of the war.
The below link leads to descriptions of the various types of Infantry Battalion field by the Australian Army during the war.
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The Australian Infantry Battalion